1. Field of the Invention
Implementations of the present invention generally relate to a processing unit in a graphics system, and, more specifically, to a method and system for communicating with an external device through the processing unit in the graphics system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computing device may communicate with an external device through a communication network such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wireless LAN (WLAN). Alternatively, the device may communicate with the external device via a physical connection. Data streams received via the network connection or via the physical connection are traditionally sent to a first processing unit of the computing device (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU)) through a south bridge chip and also the north bridge chip. Thereafter, the processing unit may send certain received data streams to a graphics system having a second processing unit (e.g., a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)) for further processing.
In other words, before the data streams from either the network connection or the physical connection reach the second processing unit of the graphics system, the data streams need to go through at least some physical layer chips on a network adaptor (e.g., Gigabit Ethernet card), the PCIE interface, and the first processing unit of the computing device. The inefficiencies and delays associated with having the received data streams travel through these various components of the device may be improved by utilizing the unused hardware resources of the graphics system, so that the received data streams intended for the second processing unit are routed to the second processing unit directly.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is thus a method and a system for communicating with an external device through a processing unit in a graphics system and address at least the foregoing issues.